Lesson 27. Masculine gender

Today we take a closer look at the masculine gender.

Markers of the masculine gender

1. Ends in a consonant (most of the time):

2. A special group — words ending in -o, but masculine by meaning:

3. Exceptions — male names and words ending in -a:

Agreement

The following forms go with the masculine:

• Possessive: moj, tvoj, naš (my, your, our).
• Demonstrative: ovaj, taj, onaj (this, that, that one over there).
• Adjective: the bare form with no ending (crven, plav, veliki).

Animate and inanimate

Within the masculine gender, Serbian distinguishes animate (living) and inanimate (things). The difference will show up in the cases (later on). For now, just notice:

• Animate: brat, konj, pas, učitelj.
• Inanimate: sto, grad, hleb, prozor.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Which of these words is NOT masculine?

stohlebknjigagrad

Show explanation

knjiga is feminine (it ends in -a, and it’s not one of the exceptions).

Exercise 2

Choose the right form: «___ prozor»

mojmojamoje

Show explanation

prozor is masculine. The possessive is moj.

Exercise 3

From this list, write out only the masculine words: brat, mama, konj, more, grad, baka, sto, selo.

Show answer

brat, konj, grad, sto. Feminine: mama, baka. Neuter: more, selo.

Exercise 4

Write in Serbian: “my brother”, “my table”, “my house”.

Show answer

moj brat, moj sto, moj dom.

Exercise 5

The word student isn’t in the dictionary, but you can easily tell its gender. Which one?

Show answer

It ends in a consonant → masculine.

Lesson vocabulary

student (студент)

— student

učitelj (учитељ)

— teacher (m.)

orao (орао)

— eagle

veliki (велики)

— big (m.)

ovaj (овај)

— this (m.)

taj (тај)

— that (m.)

tvoj (твој)

— your (m.)

naš (наш)

— our (m.)